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BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, 




BORN 


AT 


KINDERHOOK LANDING, COLUMBIA CO., N. Y., 




December 14, 1796. 




DIED 




AT PARIS, NOVEMBER 8, 1858. 




Aged 63 years, 10 months, and 15 days. 



' 3 3 i' j-p 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



Mr. Butler sailed from New York in tlie steamship 
"Arago," October' 16, 1858, accompanied by his two 
youngest daughters, and intending to be absent about 
two years. His proposed tour was undertaken partly for 
health, partly for mental relaxation and repose from pro- 
fessional labors. It was his design to travel leisurely 
through France to Italy, and to spend the greater part 
of the winter at Rome. He reached Havre on the 29th 
October, and remained there three days for the purpose of 
resting after the discomforts of the voyage. While there 
he made an excursion to Honfleur, and also to Harfleur. 
On Monday, November 1, he proceeded to Eouen, and 
spent nearly two days in visiting the objects of interest in 
that ancient city, reaching Paris on Wednesday, the 3d. 
In a letter dated on the following morning, he says, " I 
cannot tell you, if I had the physical strength, which I 
have not, of the delights of our forty hours at Rouen." 
But the sight seeing, " though intensely interesting, 
proved too much for me, and I was consequently brought 
to Paris an invalid. I am in good hands, and decidedly 
convalescent." On the same day his illness became 
alarming, and Dr. Beylard, an eminent j)hysician, 
(whose views were subsequently confirmed by Drs. Ray- 
er and Trousseau,) being called in, pronounced his 



case a serious one. The disease made rapid progress, 
and lie continued to sink until Mondaj^, November 8tli, 
when he breathed his last, about twenty minutes past 
nine o'clock P. M. He was fully conscious of his ap- 
proaching death, which he anticipated with serenity and 
joy, and communicated to his friend and fellow-travel- 
ler, Mr. Frederick Brown, of Philadelphia, (who, as 
well as Mrs. Brown, shared with his daughters in min- 
istering to all his wants during his last sickness,) his 
final wishes, among which was the request that upon the 
stone to be placed over his grave at Greenwood Cemetery, 
in a spot designated by him before his departure, there 
should be inscribed the following scripture : 

" LOOKING FOR THE MERCY OF 

®m ITorb |csus Qni&t 

UNTO ETERNAL LIFE.'' 



MEETING OF AMERICANS IN PARIS. 

At a Diimerons and tigUy resj^ectalble meeting 
of American citizens, convened November 12, 1858, 
at the banking-house of Messrs. Joiij!^ Mujstroe <fe 
Co., Rue de La Paix, for the purpose of a public ex- 
pression of their respect for the hfe and character, 
and their grief at the lamented death, of the Hon- 
orable Benjamin F. Butlee, of New York, who ex- 
pired in Paris on the 8th November, after a brief 
illness, the Honorable John Y. Mason, of Virginia, 
was unanimously called to the chair, and Mr. Cooley, 
of New York, appointed secretary. Judge Mason, 
on taking the chair, addressed the meeting in a feel- 
ing and impressive manner, alluding to the eminent 
public services and private virtues of the deceased, 
in terms highly appropriate to the occasion. At 
the conclusion of his remarks, the Honorable Ham- 



6 

iLTON Fish, of New York, presented tlie following 
preamble and resolutions, wliicli were unanimously 
adopted : 

Whereas, in the inscrutable Providence of God, we are called 
to lament the decease of our sincerely respected fellow-citizen, the 
Honorable Benjamin F. Butler, of New York, who having but 
a few days since left his country and home for what he joyously 
called his " first holiday," has been, here at the threshold of his 
anticipated enjoyment, suddenly summoned to his final rest. 

Resolved — That the mysterious Providence which has sud- 
denly and in a foreign land taken from among us our distinguished 
and lamented countryman, Benjamin F. Butler, while overwhelm- 
ing us with sadness, impresses upon us the conviction that we are 
all but pilgrims and sojourners in a strange country ; and that 
our home is not here. 

Resolved — That the eminent public services and private 
virtues which endeared the deceased to a large circle of warm 
friends and earnest admirers, afford us a pleasing and grateful 
retrospect in this hour of sudden bereavement. 

As an advocate, as a legislator, as the codifier of the statutes of 
his native State, as the law officer of the Federal Government, he 
has left us the example of a life directed by a lofty sense of duty, 
rectitude and patriotism, and illumined by the brightness of a 
refined and cultivated intellect. 

In private life he exemplified the chai'aeter of the true friend, 
the upright citizen, the sincere and earnest Christian ; in whom 
gentleness was beautifully combined with firmness, modesty with 
decision, and whose manly boldness and self-reliance were tem- 
pered and chastened by a pure and childlike simplicity of taste 
and of manners. 

Resolved — That while we are admonished not to obtrude upon 
the sanctity of a house of mourning, we desire to tender to the 
bereaved family of the deceased our sincere and heartfelt con- 
dolence. 

Resolved — That the president of this meeting be requested to 
forward a copy of these resolutions to the family of Mr. Butler. 



On motion of Mr. Scheoeder, of Rhode Island, 

Resolved — That the proceedings of this meeting be published 
in " Galignani's Messenger." 

On motion of Mr. Prentice, the meeting then 
adjourned. 

J Y. Mason, 
J. E. CooLEY, Chairman. 

Secretary 



MEETING OF THE BAE OF THE CITY OF 

NEW YOEK. 

On Weduesclay afternoon, Dec. 1st, at 3 o'clock 
P. M., the members of tlie Bar assembled in the 
United States District Court Room, to do honor to 
the memory of Bexjamix F. Butlee. There was a 
very large attendance of the Judiciary and members 
of the profession, as well as many others who em- 
braced this opportunity of paying a last triljute of 
affection and respect to the deceased. 

Fraistcis F. Maebury, Esq., called the meeting 
to order, and nominated Hon. Judge Nelsoist, of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, as Chairman. 

Judge Nelson, on taking the Chair, said : I beg 
to return my acknowledgments to the gentlemen of 
the Bar for the honor conferred upon me in presid- 
ing over them on this melancholy occasion. Our 
deceased brother, Benjamin F. Butlee, was long 



9 



and intimately known to most, if not all of us. We 
admired him for his great learning, and as an able 
and aecomplislied advocate. His distinguished pub- 
lic and professional life, in his own State, here, in the 
midst of us, and in the counsels of the nation, as 
well as his pure and elevated j^rivate and Christian 
character, well deserve this tribute of affection to his 
memory from his professional brethren. As a mem- 
ber of the profession of which we are all proud, he 
has contributed his full share to its honors and 
renown, and for this alone his memory is entitled to 
our lasting gratitude and respect. 

On motion of Chaeles Teacy, Esq., the follow 
ing gentlemen were appointed — 

Vice-Peesidents : Hon. Samuel L. Seldeis^, of 
the Court of Appeals ; Hon. Samuel K. Betts, 
United States District Court ; Hon. James I. Roose- 
velt, Supreme Court ; Hon. Jos. S. Boswoetii, Ch. 
J. of the Superior Court ; Hon. Chaeles P. Daly, 
First Judo^e of the Common Pleas. 

Seceetaeies: Chaeles P. Kiekland, Esq., and 
E. H. Owen, Esq. 

Samuel J. Tlldes-, Esq., of the Committee on 
Kesolutions, said: 

Me. Chaieman: I have been commissioned to 
submit to you and to this meeting a series of resolu- 
tions, as a collective expression of the sentiments 



10 

with whicli we regard the death of Mr, Butlee. In 
doing so, I limit myself to this simple office, for I 
feel that it belongs to others, more his compeers 
than myself, to bring together ronnd his bier the of- 
fering of their esteem and affection, and to do to his 
character and services that justice which is due to 
the dead, and due also to the living members of the 
Bar, in the noble example which will be portrayed 
for their imitation and improvement. 

Resolved — That in the death of Benjamin F. Butler the legal 
profession and the public at lai-ge are called to mourn the loss of 
a jurist who illustrated by his abilities and learning an active 
career as advocate and counsel, of more than forty years' duration, 
embracing eminent services as Attorney General of the United 
States, and in many other important civil trusts ; and who in the 
results of his labors, jointly with John C. Spencer and John 
Duer, in the revision and codification of the statutory laws of the 
State of New York, has left an imperishable monument of his 
attainments as a lawyer and his capacity as a legislator. 

Resolved — That while we thus express our sense of the abili- 
ties and achievements as a jurist of our departed brother, a just 
appreciation of his character and services prompts us to a special 
commemoration of the scrupulous care with which he ever sought 
to guard and promote the dignity and usefulness of our profession, 
and to make it the means of purifying and strengthening the ad- 
ministration of justice; his devotion to it as a liberal and scien- 
tific pursuit; bis efi'orts to improve the legislation and jurispru- 
dence of this State ; the equity and afiectionate courtesy which 
pervaded his intercourse with his brethren during the long period 
of his active practice at the bar ; the generous freedom with 
which he ever opened to an associate the use of the ample stores of 
learning and thought which he had laboriously prepared, even 
though that associate was to precede him in the argument ; his taste 
for liberal studies, cultivated even amid the severest pressure of 



11 



business ; and, above all, his Christian virtues, whose charities, 
without losing their energy, embraced all religious denominations 
and all classes of men ; whose graces adorned his daily life, and 
cast a beautiful lustre over its closing hours. 

Resolved — That as a mark of respect for the deceased, and of 
our deep sense of the loss which the public and the profession 
have sustained, the members of the Bar now present will attend 
his funeral in a body. 

Resolved — That a copy of the foregoing resolutions, attested 
by the Secretaries of this meeting, be transmitted by them to the 
family of Mr. Butler, as an expression of our sympathy and con- 
dolence. 

Resolved — That these proceedings be published under the 
direction of the Secretaries. 

The Hon. William Kent then addressed the 
meeting as follows : 

Mk. Chairman : In rising to offer my feeble 
tribute to the memory of Mr. Butler, I believe I 
may claim a longer acquaintance with him than can 
any other person in this meeting. Others may have 
been more intimate with him, and more familiar 
with his domestic circle ; but my acquaintance, 
though there was a difference in our years, runs 
back to my childhood. I knew him first when he 
was an assistant of Mr. Van Buren in his ofiice at 
Albany ; and I may remark that there was a strik- 
ing uniformity in his physical and mental qualities 
throughout his life. Time touched him lightly. 
They who saw him in his last years, beheld the 
same light and graceful figure, the same quick and 
elastic step, the bright and beaming eye, the pale. 



12 

refined, and intellectual cast of countenance, which 
he exhibited when young. It was the same with 
his heart and mind. No excesses stained his un- 
sullied youth. He was always simple in feeling, 
pure in morals, assiduous in study, kind and engag- 
iug in manners ; and he early attracted notice for 
the facility in acquiring knowledge, the endurance 
of SQV'2re and protracted labor, and the clear and 
analyzing intellect which his professional friends 
have long recognized and admired. In one respect 
— and exhibiting in that the surest test of a noble 
nature — his character matured and mellowed as he 
advanced in life. Every year I thought I observed 
that, while he preserved the ardor of his political 
opinions and unwavering zeal in his religious faith, 
he became more indulo-ent and tolerant of those 
who diifered from him in politics and religion. 

The deep feeling which j)ervades this meeting is 
drawn forth by the private and unofficial life of Mr. 
BuTLEE. He held several high offices in the State 
and National Governments, and admirably fulfilled 
their duties. In the early years of our acquaintance, 
he was discharging with energy and characteristic 
humanity, the office of District Attorney at Albany. 
He was an active and efficient member of the State 
Assembly. You, Mr. Chairman, know better than 
I do his course as Attorney General and Secretary 
of War in Washington ; but, knowing the man, I 



13 

know tliat lie cannot have left a duty of liis office 
unperformed. It was nnder the peculiar observa- 
tion of two of the gentlemen who preside at this 
meeting that he conducted the business of law offi- 
cer of the United States in this city. But well as 
all those duties were executed, my remark must still 
be felt to be true — and it speaks encouragement to 
the young members of the Bar who hear me — that 
we are drawn together this evening by our admira- 
tion, not of the official, but of the life of Beistjamiit 
FEAisTKLiisr Butler, as a private citizen and an unti- 
tled lawyer. 

As a lawyer, it seems almost superfluous to speak 
of him to such an audience as this. Who has left 
such deep traces on almost every page of our reports 
and statute-books ? Of what suliject of our multi- 
farious law has he not left his record ? He prac- 
tised in all the courts that have existed among us 
since our State constitutions have existed ; in the 
old Court of Chancery — in the Supreme Court, in 
the time of Spencer — in the old Court for the Cor- 
rection of Errors, in which his influence was for a 
time predominating — in the Supreme Court, while 
you. Sir, (Mr. Justice Nelson,) presided there — 
and all the courts of our existing judicature. The 
student, in pursuing his studies, is surprised to find 
in all his books such vast and various memoranda 
of the professional labors of this remarkable lawyer. 



14 

He finds Lis arguments on the old, ingenious, and 
artificial rules of special pleading, both at law and in 
equity. He finds evidence of his professional learn- 
ing in the subtle distinctions of the English law of 
real property, and in all the doctrines which govern 
the creation and devolution of estates, the interpreta- 
tion of devises, and the construction of settlements 
and deeds, tracing, with the erudition and intellectual 
subtlety of Feaene, and Sugden, and Peestoist, the 
rules which control real property, through number- 
less and bewildering cases, to their deep sources in 
the obscure recesses of the Mediaeval Law. The 
books are filled with his arguments on the ordinary 
law questions which occuj^y our courts, exhibiting 
the extent of his studies in constitutional and com- 
mercial law, and showing how completely he brought 
^o bear in his discussion all the legal learning of 
England and America. 

It was in those disquisitions and arguments I 
have seen him engaged, as associate or opponent, 
with the great lawyers of Central New York ; with 
VajST Bueen, and Heney, and Talcott, and Van 
VECiiTEisr ; and since his removal to 'New York, 
when he appeared '"''primus inter pares^'' with the 
skilled veterans of the Metropolitan Bar. 

There is one aspect of his professional character 
on which I love to linger : I allude to his treatment 
of his junior associates. Never did he appear to 



15 



me so engaging and so truly magnanimous as in his 
chamber consultations. His briefs, his memoranda, 
all the treasures of his learning, and fruits of his 
investigation, were offered to his associate. He 
encouraged the young lawyer in his timid efforts, 
and unrestrainedly presented all he knew to the 
compeer counsel who was associated with him. He 
was indifferent to his position in the argument, aid- 
ing the lawyer who preceded him with suggestions, 
or with citations of authorities ; with briefs, which 
perhaps had cost him hours of studious labor, in 
entire abnegation of his own interests, and, indeed, 
unconsciousness of vanity and selfishness. Nothing 
could be more cordial or unaffected than his sym- 
pathy with an associate in his success, recalling the 
fine trait of Virgil's character : " usque adeo invidicB 
expertem^ ut si qtiid erudite dictum inspiceret altv- 
rius^ non nimus gauderet^ ac si suwn fuisset.^'' If 
the other exhibitions of professional excellence at- 
tracted adnairation, it was this evidence of innate 
generosity that fixed our love. 

Im23erfect as are these allusions to Mr. Butler's 
13rofessional lal^ors, they would be still more defec- 
tive if I did not mention his share in the production 
of the Revised Statutes. You, Mr. Chairman, re- 
member, as I do, the reluctance and apprehension 
with which those laws were received. All changes 
in a nation's law unavoidably produce inconvenience. 



16 

and familiarity and study are necessary to produce 
a general acknowledgment of their benefit. This 
acknowledgment the Kevised Statutes have now 
received from even the seniors of the profession. 
The princij)le of the revision was wise and conserva- 
tive. Acknowledged evils only were removed; 
doubts were cleared away ; the doctrines of impor- 
tant decisions were extended ; anomalies were sup- 
pressed or reconciled ; but still the essence of the 
old laws was preserved, and even the habits of the 
lawyers were wisely respected. The peculiarity of 
the common law itself appears to have been the 
guiding rule of the Revisors, and the statutes were 
formed, not on the model of an inexorable and ab- 
stract system, but in accordance with the customs 
and wants of the profession and the nation. This 
code w^as not the direct and arbitrary statute, going 
straight to its object, like the cannon ball, shatter- 
ing what it reaches, and shattering, that it may 
reach ; but resemljled the village road described in 
the beautiful lines in Wallenstein : — 

" The road the human being traA'els, 
That on -which Blessing comes and goes, doth follow 
The river's course, the valley's playful windings, 
Curves round the cornfield and the hill of vines, 
Honoring the holy bounds of property." 

I am not able to make partition of merit among 



17 

the three distinguisliecl men wlio performed this 
e:reat leg-fxl work. We know that some of the most 
important chapters were the j)roduction of him 
(Judge Duek), whose exuberant learning and talents 
received recently a touching and eloquent eulogy 
from Mr. Butler himself, in this vicinity. All who 
know the hardy genius and indomitable energy of 
JoHisr C. Spencer, will readily believe that his spirit 
pervaded the whole work. But, judging only from 
internal evidence, I cannot avoid believiug that 
much of the essential excellence of the Revised 
Statutes, and more of the labor which adapted them 
to our general system of Jurisprudence, — the plan 
and order of the work, — the correctness of its style, 
— the learning of the notes, — the marginal refer- 
ences, — and the admirable index which accompanied 
it, — should be ascribed to the Ihnce lahot\ — the 
patient touches of unwearied art, bestowed by the 
skill and matchless assiduity of Mr. Butler. 

I leave the religious element of his character to 
those more authorized than I am to speak of it, and 
who more deeply sympathized with him. Yet it is 
impossible to pass it by entirel}^, so inseparably was 
it connected with the man, and exhibited in his 
daily life. It was interwoven with his character : 
it was intermingled with every act and thought of 
his life. No one was ever in his company without 
being conscious of the presence of a man of the 

2 



18 

deepest religious convictions and opinions, which 
were, when occasion j^ermitted, always most nne- 
qui vocally, though modestly, avowed, — yet never 
offensively obtruded. Their expressions never hurt 
the feelings of others, nor offended their taste, — but 
were guided by a sense of gentlemanly courtesy. I 
have been reminded, while observing his bearing 
and demeanor in society, of Dryden's lines : — 

" Refined himself to soul, to curb the sense, 
And almost made a sin of abstinence, — 
Yet had his aspect nothing of severe, 
But such a face as promised him sincere : 
Nothing reserved or sullen was to see, 
But sweet regard and pleasing sanctity." 

In the Summer of 1856, I became aware that 
Mr. Butlee's health was yielding alarmingly, 
and I made a vain attempt to check the intensity 
of labor which I perceived was rapidly wearing 
away his strength and vitality. I was associated 
with him and two other lawyers in the conduct of a 
case, which for voluminous and complicated plead- 
ing and proofs was jDerhaps unj^aralleled in our 
courts. It was deemed necessary that a condensed 
statement of the evidence of the whole case, and 
legal points, with minute references to the proofs 
and authorities affecting every point, should be pre- 
pared for the Court of Appeals. Two of the associ- 



m^ 



19 

ate lawyers were prevented by other engagements 
from undertaking the work ; I shrunk from it, as 
utterly beyond my powers, — and it fell to the self- 
sacrificing industry of Mr. Butler. Our confer- 
ences in relation to it were of daily occurrence; 
and I observed, with alarm, its gradual effect on 
his health. Often have I left him bending^ over his 
desk, late of a July night, and found him the next 
morning in the same posture, which had been varied, 
in the interval, by only a brief period of intermis- 
sion, in which he has told me that sleep was often 
sought in vain. I remonstrated often, seriously, — 
almost angrily. I remember his once answering me 
by repeating Wordsworth's " Ode to Duty." It 
was impossible to withdraw him from his work ; 
and thus health was wasted at the midnight taper, 
— ^life itself consumed in the severe labors of his 
office, — and when his task was finished, to the ad- 
miration of his associates and op^Donents, the anxious 
eye of friendship saw too surely that the stamina 
of his constitution was gone. It enhances our idea 
of his energy, to know that this too protracted labor 
was in part performed while mourning a bereavement 
the most afflicting that could occur to a man of his 
domestic affections. I have no right, even in the 
spirit of panegyric, to invade the privacy of his 
domestic affections ; but it is not improjDer to say 
that the loss of the beloved and honored partner 



20 

of his life gave additional effect to Lis fatal labor, 
while our admiration is increased when we think that 
he carried on his work, enduring in silence and com- 
posure a heartfelt wound, which had touched a 
nerve where agony resided. 

Yet there was for me another moment of 2:)leas- 
ing illusion. I met him in Nassau street a few days 
before his departure for Europe, and heard, with 
unraingled pleasure, the anticipations he had formed 
of his tour. He spoke of Italy and Rome ; of Tibur 
and the Anio, the haunts of his favorite Horace ; of 
the Tusculau retreat of Cicero, and, sportively, 
promised to write me a letter from the ruins of the 
Forum. I spoke to him of England, which he 
hoped to revisit, — and I anticij^ated the pleasure of 
his wanderings in the homes of the great Jurists 
whose works had been his lifelong study, and who, 
like him, had mused on the common law, and 
brought philosophy and learning to aid in its pro- 
gress and improvement : of Haegeave, and Chaeles 
BuTLEB, and Mansfield, and Romillt. Why think 
of death ? was my reflection, to one so full of joyous 
hope and expectation ! I left him in a pleasant 
delusion as to his health and future life, — to be 
suddenly startled by the intelligence that his earthly 
career was ended, and that his gentle and generous 
spirit, worn by toil, had sunk on the highway of 
life, to awake, as we reverently believe, " an angel 
still." 



21 

If, to a stranger, this imperfect sketcli of the 
Friend we mourn shall appear to be too uumingled 
a eulogy, I can only say that I believe I have been 
attempting to describe a man in whom I knew no 
fault. Such, I believe, is the feeling of his friends. 
To his brethren of the profession which he adorned, 
instructed, and loved, I can sincerely address the 
appropriate invocation : 

" Tread lightly on his ashes, ye men of genius, 
for he was your kinsman ! Weed clean his grave, 
ye men of goodness, for he was your brother ! " 

Mr. M. S. BiDWELL then spoke as follows : 
Mr. Chairman, I follow with diffidence my 
friend who has just addressed you ; as he has ex- 
hibited the character of Mr. Butlee with so much 
truth, and at the same time with so much beauty. 
But I shall take the liberty of referring with more 
particularity to the history and life of Mr. Butlee, 
from facts which are withia my own knowledge, or 
which have been obtained from others. I think 
this is a suitable occasion to enter into some detail, 
with regard to the history of one who was so dis- 
tinguished a member of our profession, and so 
remarkable a man. 

Mr. Butlee was born on the 14th of December, 
1795, and his earthly career of honor and usefulness 
was terminated by his death at Paris, on the 8 th of 
November, 1858. 



90, 



Altliougli he had not the advantages of a col- 
legiate education, and of that direction and assist- 
ance in his studies and labors which he would have 
appreciated and improved diligently, yet he was a 
student of distinction and great j)romise, as I am 
able to testify from an incident within my own 
recollection. Passing through Albany, in 1816, 
then a lad, I recollect very well having heard his 
name mentioned by a gentleman of remarkable 
talents, acquirements, and discernment, who spoke 
of him as a young student of great brilliancy and 
promise ; and he added a fact, so characteristic of 
Mr. B., that I will mention it : that he was at that 
time one of the teachers, or Superintendent, of a 
Sabbath School in that city. 

In 1817 Mr. Butlee was admitted as attorney 
of the Supreme Court of this State. In the same 
year he made a public profession of religion, and 
became a communicant of the Presbyterian church 
then under the pastoral care of the Rev. Dr. Ches- 
TEE. This step, and his being a Sabbath School 
teacher, were at that time incidents of much more 
singularity than they would be at present. They 
are evidence of the honesty, indej^endence of mind, 
and frankness which belonged to his character. In 
1818, it was his great good fortune, and a source of 
the highest felicity to him through life, to be mar- 
ried to Miss Allen, the sister of a gallant officer in 



23 



the Navy of the United States, who perished in a 
melancholy manner at the hands of pirates in the 
Gulf of Mexico. In 1820 he was admitted as 
Counsellor at Law ; and this, in connection with his 
almost immediate employment in important profes- 
sional business and offices, will illustrate his charac- 
ter, by showing his great j)roficiency as a student, 
and the acquirements he had made at that very 
early period of his life. On his admission as attor- 
ney, he became the partner of Mr. Vais^ Bueejst, a 
connection which continued for years, and led to an 
intimate friendship between those gentlemen that 
was mutually honorable, satisfactory, and useful. 

In 1821 he was appointed District Attorney at 
Albany, and held that office until March, 1825. 
He was, almost upon his admission as counsellor, 
employed in most of the important cases before the 
Supreme Court, and especially before the Court for 
the correction of Errors. 

In Nov. 1824, a law was passed by the Legisla- 
ture of the State, appointing Chancellor Kent, 
Governor Root, and Mr. Butler Commissioners to 
revise the Statute Laws of the State. Previous to 
that, he had been prominently engaged as counsel, 
and the very first cause which he argued in the 
Court of Errors was an important one, involving 
abstruse questions of law. He had the honor of 
being associated with Aaeon Buer and Mr. Van 



24 

BuEEN, and was opposed by Mr. Heistrt, well known 
as one of the distinguished lawyers of Albany ; but 
his argumeiit was so complete and thorough that his 
eminent colleagues declined to say any thing, — and 
the cause was left on his opening argument, and 
decided in his favor. 

In 1825, the Revisers, who had been appointed by 
the law of 1824, not having entered on their duties, 
another law was passed, by which Mr. Butler, Mr. 
DuER, and Mr. Wheaton (whose j^lace was soon 
afterward filled by Mr. Spencer), were appointed 
Commissioners to revise the Statute Laws of the 
State. The selection of Mr. Butler, then so re- 
cently admitted as counsellor at law, carried with it 
evidence of the high estimation in which he was 
held Ijy the Legislature. His was an undertaking 
f great hazard to professional reputation, as well 
as of great labor. It necessarily involved for a 
time the almost entire sacrifice of his business, as he 
was obliged to devote himself exclusively to that 
dutv. It was a most toilsome and difficult task. 
But he did not shrink from it. He undertook it ; 
and notwithstanding the prejudices which it at first 
encountered, it was carried through to a very suc- 
cessful termination. I need not add any thing to 
what has been said in reference to the extent and 
value of this work. It would be difficult for any 
of us to appreciate now the labors of the gentlemen 



25 

wlio conducted tliat revision. Mr. Butler was 
concerned in it from the beginning to tlie end, and 
I am persuaded that tlie part wliicb. lie took was 
onerous and important. 

Upon the occasion which last convened the 
members of the Bar — the death of Judge Duer — 
Mr. Butler made an address which will be remem- 
bered by all then present ; at the conclusion of that 
meeting I expressed a wish to him that, as he was 
the sole survivor of the gentlemen concerned in that 
labor, he would reduce to writing a statement of 
the manner in which it was accomplished, and the 
diiferent parts which the Revisers took in it. He 
expressed his willingness, if it was the desire of the 
members of the Bar, to do so. On inquiry I found 
it was, as I anticij^ated, the general desire of the Bar, 
and I had taken measures to have it accomplished 
when he was obliged to depart for Europe. I 
regret that I did not do it before, for I am ap- 
prehensive that Mr. Butler did not find time to at- 
tend to it. The statutes, previous to this revision, 
as is well known, were in a state of chaos. The 
undertaking was novel, in the mode in which it was 
proposed to carry it out. The plan of arrangement, 
the style, and all were novel ; and it was carried 
through with great felicity, and with an improve- 
ment in point of phraseology, as well as regard to 
arrangement of the whole statutory laws of the 



26 

State in a regular system, in such a manner as to 
remove tlie inconvenience which had occurred from 
desultory legislation for many years previously. It 
was a pioneer work, and it has been followed, I be- 
lieve, in most of the States of the Union. Many of 
the provisions contained in the Revised Statutes, 
which were suggested by the Revisers, have been 
incorporated, without just acknowledgment, in the 
legislation of Great Britain since that period, as 
will be apparent to any one who examines the Brit- 
ish Statutes. 

1 Mr. Butlee's exertions in regard to this great 
work were not confined to his proper task as a 
Reviser ; for he was elected a member of Assembly 
in 1827, and during the extra session of the 
Legislature which was held for the special purpose 
of considering the proposed revision, he was inde- 
fatigable and prominent in the discussion on the 
subject in the Assembly. The extent of his exer- 
tions, and the im23ortance of the part which he took 
in these discussions, may be inferred from the num- 
ber of his speeches, exceeding five hundred during 
the session. ^ — ' 
\ In 1829, Mr. Butlee was elected Regent of the 
University, and he held that ofiice until 1832. I 
believe that was almost the only office he held, 
which did not impose uj^on him res2:)onsible and 
severely toilsome duties. . ^ 1 



2T 



In 1883, the nomiuation was tendered to him, 
of Senator of tlie United States — a unanimous nom- 
ination on the part of members of the party to 
which he belonged, — which was equivalent to an 
election ; but Mr. Butler peremptorily declined 
that great honor, and expressed his determination, 
to which he adhered through life, — not to accept 
any office which would withdraw him from his pro- 
fessional studies and pursuits. The same year 
(1833) he was appointed Commissioner for the pur- 
pose of settling a dispute as to boundary, between 
this State and New Jersey. The dispute, which 
had continued for fifty years, was likely to embroil 
the two States, and led to frequent and serious con- 
flicts between their citizens. Most happy was the 
selection on the part of this State and of New Jer- 
sey, that State having appointed Mr. Feelinghuy- 
SEisr — thus leaving the arrangement of the matter in 
controversy, to two most congenial spitits, — both 
considerate, conscientious, and cautious men. The 
result was an amicable settlement of that long dis- 
pute, which was calculated to produce much mis- 
chief and trouble, if it had not happily been brought 
to an end. 

' The same year he was appointed Attorney 
General of the United States, being the youngest 
man who had ever held that office, succeeding: Mr. 
Taney, the present Chief Justice of the Supreme 



28 

Court of the United Statesj/(and wliile holding the 
office of Attorney General, he was in October, 1836, 
also appointed Secretary of War, which office he 
held, in conjunction with that of Attorney General, 
until the 4th of March, 1837. The reason, as I 
understand (and I suppose it is matter of notoriety), 
for the appointment of Mr. Butler, was the reluc- 
tance of General Jacksojs", so near the conclusion 
of his presidential term, to appoint any person as 
Secretary of War, w^ho might occasion embarrass- 
ment to his successor, Mr. Van Bueen, in the 
selection of his cabinet, and the great confidence 
which he had in Mr. Butler's ability and prudence ; 
and by his earnest request, Mr. Butler was induced 
to undertake the labors of that office, in addition to 
the duties of Attorney GeneraLj' This was during 
the Seminole War. There was an accumulation 
of business, and not a little want of order ; and Mr. 
Butler, by his assiduity, care, and systematic 
method, brought up the arrears of business, restored 
order, and left the department in a satisfactory state 
to his successor. 

He resigned the office on the 4th of Marcli, 1837, 
upon the accession of Mr. Van^ Buren to the Presi- 
dency. He retained his office of Attorney General 
until 1838, when he resigned it, — in the second 
year of the presidential term of his intimate and 



29 



warm friend, Mr. Vat^ Bueeist, — ^and returned to 
this city, to devote himself to private practice. 

In 1838, after his return here, the office of Dis- 
trict Attorney for the United States l3ecame vacant 
by an unexpected event, — and Mr. Butler was ap- 
pointed to succeed Mr. Peice. I think it my duty 
to allude to the manner in which that office became 
vacant, as it shows that Mr. Butlee did not come 
back here with any purpose or any expectation of 
obtaining the office conferred upon him; but a 
vacancy having occurred, it was very natural, and I 
presume all will agree, very proper, for Mr. Van 
BuREN to ask Mr. Butlee to accept the office. 
That office he held until the inauguration of General 
Haeeison, in 1841, when he resigned, and a succes- 
sor was appointed. 

In 1844, Mr. Butlee was at the head of the 
Electoral College of this State, — when the vote of 
the State was cast for Mr. Polk as President, and 
for Mr. Dallas as Vice President. In 1845, after 
the election of Mr. Polk, and before his inaus^ura- 
tion, he requested Mr. Butlee to take the office of 
Secretary of War ; but Mr. Butlee declined, ad- 
hering to the resolution which he had taken in early 
life, not to forsake the profession to which he had 
devoted himself, and of which he was so brilliant and 
accomplished an ornament. In the same year, how- 
ever, Mr. Polk, without solicitation, conferred upon 



30 

him tlie office of District Attorney, and lie retained 
that office until he was removed in 1848, on politi- 
cal grounds. 

1 In the latter year, or about that time, Mr. 
BuTLEE was ap23ointed, without his consent or pre- 
vious knowledge, as a commissioner to codify the 
laws of this State, in conjunction with the Honorable 
John C. Spencee. Governor Fish had the commis- 
sion made out in form and under the seal of the 
State, and sent it to Mr. Butlee, with a particular 
request that he would undertake the duties of the 
office. Mr. Spencee also wrote to Mr. Butlee, 
suggesting to him that it was a very important 
duty, and that if he would join him, and some third 
person could be found, of similar character for in- 
dustry and learning, to unite with them, he would 
be willing to undertake the duty. But Mr. Butlee 
declined it, for various considerations, which are 
not necessary to be mentioned. ^— ' 

In 1853, Mr. Butlee sustained a great calamity, 
the great and irreparable calamity of his life. He 
was fond of domestic life. The felicity of his home 
was very great ; but the time had come when it 
was to be invaded by the unrelenting enemy of 
man, — and the endeared companion of his life, — 
who had cheered his toils and lightened his cares, 
whose heart had ever throbbed in unison with his, — 
who was " the desire of his eyes," and the light and 



31 



joy of his liappy home, — was removed by death. 
It was a bereavement in which his friends sympa- 
thized with him deeply ; but it brought out the 
force of Christian principle, which has been advert- 
ed to, very strongly. Hapj^y as he had been, and 
greatly as he had occasion to appreciate the bless- 
ing which God, who had bestowed it, had with- 
drawn, he bore his sore affliction with serene resig- 
nation, — although not without deep and abiding 
sadness ; and thus exhibited the strength of his 
religion in a way that was equally impressive and 
edifying to all who had an opportunity of witness- 
ing it. 

/ In 1856 he made a short visit to Europe, — a 
very brief excursion to Great Britain, — and re- 
turned almost immediately, in order that he might 
complete a professional duty he had undertakenj_] 
which has been referred to by Judge Kent, and 
his devotion to which for a long time, I have no 
doubt was the fatal cause of his declining health 
and death. 

After his return, he was selected as one of a 
committee of nine, by the American Bible Society, 
to settle an important controversy which agitated 
the religious public not a little, with regard to the 
publications of that Society. The selection of Mr. 
Butler as one of a committee taken from the coun- 
tr}' at large, for the performance of this difficult and 



32 



delicate task, evinced tlie estimation in wLich he 
was Leld, and tiae confidence wliicli was felt, and 
whch tlie event justified, in his wisdom, sound 
judgment, and Christian principles. 

On the 16th of October last, Mr. Butlep. sailed 
from th,s city to Europe. I have ever considered 
It a great honor and privilege to have been ac 
quainted with him, and to have been favored in 
some measure with his friendship ; and on that oc 
cas.on I could not deny myself the pleasure of bid- 
ding him farewell, without, however, anticipating 
the calamity so near at hand. I went with a friend 
on board the steamer to take my leave of him I 
Lave a distinct recollection of that short interview 
His face beaming with intelligence and kindness, as 
It always did, he spoke with cheerful hope of the 
eftect of the excursion in restoring his health, and 
of the pleasure he e.xpected to derive in visitin. 
foreign lands; ex-pressing the hope that he mi^ht 
be able to extend his travels to Palestine, and other 
places of great interest. 

I have thus gone rapidly through the history of 
Mr. BuiiEB's life, and its principal incidents. It 
would not perhaps be right for me to trespass lon£,er ' 
on the patience of the meeting. I cannot, however 
forbear to advert to some things suggested by this 
kstory. One is the great force of character dis- 
played by him, in sustaining himself at that very 



33 

early period of professional life, in tliose great cases 
in wliicli lie was engaged. He was necessarily ex- 
posed to severe criticism. There was a very higli 
standard of professional merit and attainments at 
the time when he commenced his career as a lawyer. 
The Bar of this State had been distinguished for 
its Icr.rning and ability, from the time of HAMiLTOisr, 
and LiviJsrasTois", and Mokeis. There were very 
able men at the Bar, with whom he was immediately 
brought into competition. The days of Emmett 
had not entirely passed. There were Oakley, Geif- 
riN, Heistey, and others whom it is unnecessary to 
name in this audience, then in their prime ; and 
Mr. BuTLEE was brought forward, a young man, 
not long admitted to the Bar, overwhelmed with 
the labors of his office, to meet them in great and 
important public contests ; and he sustained this 
trying competition with honor and success. And 
when we consider the vast field of labor and research 
which the members of the profession in this State 
are compelled to explore and occujoy, we find a 
very striking evidence of his great ability, as well 
as of his industry and acquirements. In this State 
differing entirely from the Bar of England, to which 
we look with so much interest, every lawyer of dis- 
tinction is required to have a familiar acquaintance 
not only with one branch of law, and not merely to 
practise in one Court, but with every branch of law 
3 



34 

and to i:)ractise in every Court. He must liave a 
knowledge of the Englisli Common Law, in all its 
vastness, and in all its intricacies, and all its tech- 
nicalities ; of Equity Jurisj^rudence ; of Admiralty 
Law ; of Ecclesiastical Law. In addition to these, 
great questions of American Constitutional Law are 
frequently arising, and calling for the exercise of a 
profound power of reasoning. And then he is ex- 
pected to be familiar, not merely with the adjudica-' 
tions of the courts of this State and the courts of 
England, but with the judicial opinions and decisions 
of all the sister States. When we look at the amount 
of legal acquirements that is required of him, and 
remember that he is expected to engage in trials be- 
fore juries, as well as arguments before the Courts, 
and to have ever readily at command a knowledge 
of the different matters involved in scientific ques- 
tions and the mechanical arts, as well as in the di- 
versified operations of commerce and transactions of 
business of every kind, it will appear at once to be 
sufficient to overwhelm the most energetic, the most 
mature, and the most richly-stored mind. But Mr. 
BuTLEE uniformly sustained himself with credit and 
honor from the first ; and w^hile the quickness of his 
apprehension and the variety and readiness of his 
resources, as well as his urbanity and candor, were 
always conspicuous, he was equally distinguished for 
the fidelity and patient labor with which he pre- 



35 

pared himself to discliarge the trusts confided to his 
professional care. 

I' Professional ability, however, was not the sole 
excellence or distinction of Mr. Butlee. His social 
qualities, his love of literature and his cultivation of 
it, amid all the demands of his profession, were re- 
markable. He had a true, generous love of litera- 
ture ; he was a man of very refined and elegant taste ; 
his kno^^ledge of helUs-lettres was extensive ; and 
he had taken pains, by his own aj^plication and in- 
dustry, to become a good classical scholar. In pri- 
vate life, he was the charm of every circle. From 
the high position which he occupied, his acquaint- 
ance was extensive — ^his hospitality was equally ex- 
tensive — and those who have shared it will remember 
with deep interest and pleasure the scenes they have 
witnessed under his roof. And no one who knew 
him can forget his gentle manners and the suavity 
of his disposition, which were combined in so re- 
markable a manner with force of character and an 
inflexible resolution in all matters of princij^le and 
duty. Modesty was another trait in his character, 
a modesty which remained undiminished amidst all 
his success, attainments, and high honors. J 

I But the great and distinguishing feature of Mr. 
Butler's character, as has been already mentioned, 
was his religion. It was ever present with him, 
from the time he was a Sabbath-school teacher, in 



36 

1816, to the close of his life. Keligion, with him, 
was the best and greatest of all things that he could 
contemplate or in which he could engage. It was 
not merely a matter of profession, or of sentiment, 
or of emotion. It was all these. He was sincere in 
his behef of Christianity, and therefore he did not 
at any time shrink from the avowal of itj he 
was open in the profession of his conviction of the 
truth and sacred authority of the Bible as a Divine 
revelation. But he was more than a merely sen- 
timental, or professional, or emotional Christian. 
With him religion was practical, influential, and a 
matter of principle, regulating and controlling his 
conduct at all times. Amid all the temptations 
and gay scenes by which he was surrounded when 
he was a member of the Cabinet, and in the highest 
society of the capital of the nation, amid all the ex- 
citement of political life, in which he engaged from 
conviction of the truth of the principles he espoused, 
and from his sense of duty as a patriot : in all these, 
in every scene, in every emj)loyment, at all times, 
his religion was exhibited. 

I am aware that at one time there were ungen- 
erous calumnies in reference to his political exer- 
tions — which, however, have passed away — and I 
am sure no one can now doubt that with him it was 
not merely an ardent temperament, but a settled 
conviction of duty to his country that made him 



37 

enter into politics. And in regard to that, every 
reflecting mind must agree tliat it is the duty of the 
citizens of this country to take a warm interest in 
the political affairs of the nation. Mr. Butlee did 
so, openly and avowedly, and he never shrank from 
the declaration of his opinions, whether popular 
or not. 

His career is now closed ; but it is a happy re- 
flection that it has been a career of so much honor 
to himself, and of so much usefulness to others. It 
is the end that crowns the work. His work has 
now been crowned by a peaceful, holy, sanctified 
death. He was taken ill on the 4th of November. 
He had arrived in Paris on the 3d, and on the 4th 
he wrote a long letter to his son. In the evening 
of that day he was taken ill, and notwithstanding 
all that kindness, and attention, and medical skill 
could do, the disease progressed rapidly. He re- 
tained his consciousness, however, until the noon of 
Monday, November the 8th, and in the evening of 
that day his earthly career terminated. It is consoling 
to us to reflect, that the end of this career was the 
very commencement of one of exalted and endless 
glory and blessedness. He had filled up the mea- 
sure of his days with usefulness and honor. He 
lives no longer in the frail, decaying earthly tene- 
ment, but he is not dead : he lives the life eternal ; 
and he lives and will live in our hearts and memo- 



38 



ries. His life was a lioly and consistent life, and his 
deatli crowned it all ; and, for one, I do not look 
upon it with the same degree of gloom that many- 
do. His remains will rest in his native land : they 
will rest " in sure and certain hope " of a glorious 
resurrection, when he will appear in greater beauty 
than ever — and therefore, in reference to him, the 
concluding lines of Beattie's beautiful elegy may 
justly be applied — 

" On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending, 
And beauty, immortal, [will] wake from the tomb." 

Ex- Judge Edmonds rose, and said : 

Mr. Chaiemax : I feel that I should be doing 
great iujustice to my own feelings, if I permitted 
this oj)portunity to j)ass, without adding my mite 
to the tribute of resj^ect which we are paying to 
the memory of our deceased brother. 

My first acquaintance was formed with Mr. But- 
lee when I was but a mere lad. I knew him early 
in life, when he and I were comj)anions together of 
her who has preceded him from this life. I suc- 
ceeded him in the office in which he completed his 
studies for the law, and from that time to the hour 
of his deatli, the personal friendship and confidence 
which existed between us has never been impaired. 
I feel, therefore, as if upon an occasion like this, 
when my brethren of the Bar are assembled to pay 



.39 

tlie last tribute of respect to his memory, I ouglit 
not to be silent ; but I feel also, sir, that here, and 
within the limited time allotted to a meeting like 
this, I can do nothing like justice to my own feel- 
ings or to his worth. I have seen politically, pro- 
fessionally, socially, and personally, so many of his 
merits, — I have witnessed his generosity, his mag- 
nanimity, his talents, his industry, in so many in- 
stances, that I feel I can do no more now than sim- 
ply thus generally to allude to those characteristics, 
and commend them to my brethren as worthy 
of their admiration and imitation. I dare not trust 
my own feelings to speak more in detail ; I dare not 
venture now into a more enlarged examination of 
his claims to our regard, — for I feel that I should 
fall far short of what is due, alike to him and to 
this occasion. And you, sir, and my brethren will 
pardon me, if upon this occasion I content myself 
with offering, as an expression of my feelings, sup- 
pressed and controlled as they are by the recollec- 
tion of the loss that I, as well as they, have suffered, 
the amendment that I hold in my hand to the reso- 
lutions already offered before you. It em})odies my 
feelings, and I hope it will meet the approbation of 
my brothers here. 

Besolved — That in Mr. Butler we recognize the character- 
istics of uniform courtesy with great firmness ; of generosity with 
inflexible justice ; of fidelity without subserviency ; of great in- 



40 



dustry without unchastened ambition; of the highest purity with 
uniform charity for the offences of others : 

And we will cherish his memory because of its affording to us 
in these respects an example worthy alike of our admiration and 
imitation. 

As a writer and an orator, he was fluent, imaginative, and 
particular ; in private life he was exemplary and affectionate ; 
as a jurist he was cautious, conservative and comprehensive ; 
and as a statesman he was upright and patriotic. He has 
therefore left behind him a reputation well worthy of a long life 
well spent, and an affectionate remembrance of him among a large 
circle of devoted friends well merited and enduring. Therefore 

Resolved — That while we mourn his personal departure from 
the midst of us, we will welcome the abiding of his memory 
as an incentive to us who remain behind him to equal purity and 
elevation of character. 

Mr. Daniel Loed said : — 

Mr. President, altlioiigli the time is limited, yet 
the duty is not altogether discharged. I conceive 
it is our duty to consecrate those treasures which 
are left to us, by the example of the eminent and 
good. The example of good men is the greatest 
legacy which they leave to those who succeed them. 
Their works j)erish. The works of a lawyer are 
transient ; — but the example handed down by tra- 
dition and history influences truth, encourages vir- 
tue, and as ages roll on, with accumulated power, it 
leads to all that is honored and noble in the embel- 
lishment of our race. Therefore, the time is well 
spent, which we appropriate in taking care of those 
treasures which are occasionally presented to us in 
the characters of such men; 



41 

Sir, this is not merely a personal tribute. Un- 
doubtedly i^ersonal friendsbip has to do with it. 
But is not this of itself, a tribute to the merits of 
him whom we mourn, that we can scarcely find an in- 
dividual in the community in which he lived, of whom 
it may not be said, that he was his personal friend ? 

Mr. Chairman, I fear no exaggeration in that 
which has or can be spoken of our distinguished bro- 
ther, Benjamin F. Butlee. His character was 
symmetrical. Its proportion of virtues was a right 
proportion. It was not a character overbearing 
here with some remarkable excellence, and deficient 
there, with, some remarkable defect ; but the pro- 
portion of his virtues w^as that of beautiful harmony, 

leaving nothino^ to be asked but its continuance. 

I — • • • 

' It is, in my judgment, one of the great excel- 
lencies of Mr. Butlee, that he was a genial man. 
I lay aside the idolatry of intellect ; I lay aside the 
idolatry of learning ; I lay aside all that which so 
often attracts numbers by its power and force. As 
my hair is turned, I change my opinion as to the 
seat in which the greatest excellence is to be found. 
I look for it in the heart. I look to the man whose 
heart has been as warm as his talents were great, — 
and in this resj^ect, I call you to witness, that we 
have lost a man almost without an equal. I came 
to the Bar about the immediate period of Mr. But- 
lee. I am of his age. In the early part of my 



42 



professional life, I met him as au adversary : I was 
opposed to liim iu politics : there was almost every 
thing in my condition, to make me hostile to him. 
But circumstances occurred which brought me into 
close intimacy with Mr. Butlee; and it is a grate- 
ful thought that I have been thus permitted to 
come into closer association, into a nearer concep- 
tion of his virtues, by which all prejudices were 
washed away ; and I cheerfully add my conviction, 
that seldom anywhere, in any annals of any country, 
has a man of more genial nature, and professional 
worth, passed away from the society iu which he 
lived, leaving his mark upon the age. Sj 

Our profession has embraced two men who gave 
ns some points of similarity to the departed : Sir 
Samuel Eomillt, and William Wirt. No two men 
have ever been in the profession, whose, merits were 
more extensive, or whose memories have been more 
deeply cherished ; and yet of l3oth it was perhaps 
the crowning excellence, that their genial, domestic, 
personal and private character, swallowed up all 
that otherwise was added to it by artificial endow- 
ments. Mr. Butler, like them, was governed by 
the feelings of his heart. He always acted upon a 
sense of duty. If you look at him as an eminent 
lawyer, it was because his duty called upon him, 
that he was laborious, that he was assiduous, that 
he was patient, that he was persevering. It was 



43 



Ms duty as a jurist, that made liim careful, that 
made liim seek iuformation from every source ; 
tliat made liim conservative, that made him efacient. 
As a politician, it was a sense of duty, that made 
him firm to his principles, firm to his friends. 
Parties might change, and he would not be stable 
to his party, provided he felt he was stable to his 
principles. His friends might leave him, but he 
would not leave his friends. 

Sir, as a private man, I do not scruple to raise 
the veil. It is too often true, that in approaching 
great characters, we are warned there are hearths not 
to be invaded ; we are warned in the language of the 
satirist, in another view, that there is a skeleton in 
every house. But in regard to Mr. Butler, his friends 
may cheerfully lift the. veil from the most private re- 
cesses of his life ; they will find no trace of any thing 
there which the most ardent friend, or the purest man 
would desire to leave undiscovered. I speak the 
judgment of the vast number of the community ; I 
speak from the universal reputation which he bore,— 
notwithstanding he has gone through the conflicts of 
party— notwithstanding he has been in the struggles 
of poHtical life,— and I challenge the mention of any 
thin^ that would stain the purest private character. 
Sir, his prosperity was progressive, but it was 
not uniform. It was the prosperity that followed 
upon labor,— that followed upon well-doing. Ad- 



44 

versity overtook him ; — and lie quailed not before 
it. He liad a spirit to meet adversity, and to re- 
ceive from her the precious jewels which she is said 
to bear, resignation, experience, and patience. It 
would be unjust to any full consideration of his life 
not to look at his domestic qualities. It would be an 
injustice to his memory, and to the memory of his 
affections, not to allude to that amiable and happy 
partner with whom he lived from early manhood to 
that very recent period, when the staggering blow 
struck him, which bereaved him of the graces of a 
beautiful woman, the strong sense, the warm affec- 
tion, and the accomplishments which charmed his 
home, — which were with him to encouras^e and to 
adorn his labors, and to lessen the fatigues of a 
studious and rightly ambitious life. His house, as 
my friend has said, was the seat of elegant hospital- 
ity ; a place in which to find men of the highest 
distinction in the State, — men eminent in literature 
and science ; and the door never was shut to per- 
sons of the most modest pretensions, whose merits 
were merits of the heart. The time has been allud- 
ed to when that blow was struck, from which, doubt- 
less, he never fully recovered. Allow me to recall 
the fact, that a similar blow struck Sir Samuel 
RoMiLLY. Some thirty years ago. Lady RomLLY 
was removed by death. She was in the same hap- 
py relations to her husband, as Mrs. Butlee was to 



45 

liers. lu three days Sir Samuel Eomilly succumb- 
ed, — his mind sank, and he was taken off by suicide ! 
Our esteemed friend suffered a blow no less severe, 
under circumstances no less trying, and at a some- 
what earlier age. He met it. He was sustained, 
not by Philosophy, but by Religion. 

I do not think the religious character of a man 
is often a fit subject for public notice ; but when it 
enters so largely into the man's character, — when it 
is the basis of his virtues, — when it is the basis of 
that which calls forth our highest admiration, — we 
cannot withdraw our view from it. In his religion 
Mr. Butler was free from bigotry. His religion 
was intelligent. It was the religion of the under- 
standing and of the heart ; it entered into all his 
life. As it was the religion in which he expected 
to die, — by which he hoped to find consolation in 
his last moments, — he also felt it was a religion to 
live by, and to govern him in all he did towards his 
fellow-men. It constituted the charm of his char- 
acter in life, — and it was the beautiful event of his 
death. On the last day of his life, when he felt 
that his hour approached, he uttered the expression : 
" I feel no pain : I die a happy man ! " 

Sir, that death was a fit crown to his life. That 
death speaks to us that the idea of immortality is 
not a dogma ; that it is a reality ; that the Scripture 
has not said to us in vain : " Eye hath not seen, nor 



46 



ear heard, nor liave entered into tlie lieart of man, 
tlie things which God hath prepared for them who 
love Him." 

Mr. TiLDEN having accepted Judge Edmonds' 
amendment to the resohitioDS, they were put by the 
Chair, and carried, after which the meeting ad- 
journed. 



FUNERAL SERVICES. 



Mr. Butler's remains liaving arrived in tlie 
steamship " Arago," on Monday the 29th November, 
the funeral services took j^lace in the Mercer street 
church on" Thursday, December 2d, at 3 o'clock. 

The following gentlemen officiated as Pall 
Bearers : — 

Thomas W. Olcott, Esq. 
Hon. Samuel R. Betts, 
Hon. James J. Roosevelt, 
Hon. Aaeon Yajstderpoel, 
Hon. John L. Masoist, 
Stephen Cambeeleng, Esq., 
William Cullen Bryant, Esq., 
Horace Holden, Esq., 
John F. Gray, M. D. 

After the singing by the choir of the Hymn, 
" Sow blest the righteous when they die^'^ 



48 

The Eev. Dr. Skinnee read an approjDriate selec- 
tion of Scripture passages, and offered prayer, and 
then spoke as follows : 

In this house of mourning, in which the repre- 
sentatives of many classes and interests are assem- 
bled, the church w^hich worships here has the chief 
place, next to the family of the beloved and hon- 
ored man, whose death has occasioned our meetino;. 
With this sole exception, there was no circle of in- 
terest or sympathy so near to him, and none to 
which his removal is so deep an affliction. No sen- 
timent was more deeply seated in him than that 
which he was wont to express in the inspired words : 
" A day in thy courts is better than a thousand : I 
had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, 
than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." And it 
was among the meml^ers of this church, for nearly 
twenty-three years, that this holy sentiment had its 
purest, warmest, completest manifestation. For 
this period of time, he was one of its most faithful 
and active members, one of its principal pillars, one 
of its brightest ornaments. He was in full commu- 
nion with it, loving and loved, blessing and blessed 
of it, when he died. 

The chief benefit a church has from its mem- 
bers, better than all particular gifts, labors, sacri- 
fices, — dearer to Christ and his Angels, — ^precious 



49 



above price, is character — true piety exemplified. 
Now of this piety the test is symmetry ; proportion, 
consistency, harmony of attributes ; profession 
sustained by the life ; soundness and vigor of belief 
attested by good works ; intelligence vitalized and 
elevated by S23iritual affections ; trusting in Christ, 
and the imitation of Christ before the eyes of the 
world ; glorying in the cross, and crucifying the 
flesh ; at peace with God through justification, by 
faith, and walking humbly with God in all the ways 
of holy living ; contemplative, yet active — consist- 
ently active — ^in all the spheres of life, domestic, pro- 
fessional, secular, sacred ; devout, solitary, studious 
of the sacred oracles, penitential, self-searching, 
earnest and constant in secret 2:)rayer, yet social and 
cheerful, and always, unconsciously or intentionally, 
making others haj^py ; adorning the profession of 
piety, by sweet, amiable and gentle manners. Such 
is the ideal of true piety ; and of piety such as this, 
he whom we to-day lament, was a very beautiful 
and a very rare example. Yes, every trait in the 
outline just given, has been taken from a real ex- 
ample, and one which it has been the privilege of 
this church, to have before its eyes, to be in constant 
and near communion with, for more than a score of 
years. I speak for the whole church, without fear- 
ing that one of my words will strike a dissonant 
chord in any individual. There is not, I am sure, 
4 



50 

in this large church, a single one, who would not, 
if he might, bear 023en witness to him, how holily, 
how amiably, how uublamably, he behaved him- 
self, in all his fellowship with them, as a brother in 
holy covenant. His late pastor, as able as any one 
to give his estimation, says of him, in a letter writ- 
ten to me from Paris, a few days after his death, " I 
received this afternoon a detailed account of his last 
days, and have rarely listened to the narrative of a 
Christian death, with such intense interest. Mr. 

BuTLEE was a remarkable man, of pre-eminent re- 
ligious culture, and will receive, I trust, a commem- 
oration of his fine and noble qualities, from some 
fitting pen." 

Such is the impression which this church has of 
the i^iety of its departed member. Consistent with 
it was the part he bore in special activities. His, 
commonly, was a post of labor, at all church meet- 
ings for business, in committees, in devising ways 
and means to meet special exigencies, and in carry- 
ing forward all 2:)lans for promoting the usefulness 
of the church, whether within or without its j)ale. 

For myself, I forbear to open the treasure of 
sacred and happy impressions with which my heart 
is filled, when I call to mind my long and unvaried 
experience of his delicate sympathy, and singular 
kindness to me from the time of our first acquaint- 
ance until the evening I passed with him just before 



51 

lie left us, an hour, now to me so full of tender and 
sacred interest. His life has been, eminently, " as 
the path of the just which shineth more and more 
to the |)erfect day," that celestial day, the dawn of 
which they saw, who were with him when he died. 
What a transcendently serene and lovely dawn was 
that ! What a scene of bright tranquillity and tri- 
umphant hope, this chamber of death ! What a 
beautiful entrance to the Temple of Immortality ! 
Holy angels were there. A heavenly radiance 
illumined the place. It were pleasing to dwell on 
this instance of the victorious power of our Faith over 
all the terrors of death ; but I must give place to 
another, an earlier pastor of our beloved friend, the 
Rev. Dr. Speague. 

I have said nothing of Mr. Butlee's distinguished 
abilities, culture, and attainments ; or of his profes- 
sional and public eminence : it has suited my feel- 
ings on this occasion, to limit my thoughts to that 
very uncommon spiritual excellence, by which his 
whole life was dignified and adorned. 

The Rev. Dr. Sprague then delivered the fol- 
lowing Address: 



DR. SPRAGUE^S ADDRESS. 



There is tliat in cleatb, independently of charac- 
ter or circumstances, that stamps it with awful so- 
lemnity. You hear of its having found a new victim, 
and it impresses you as little as the changing of the 
wind ; but when you come to resolve it into its dis- 
tinctive elements, and see how comprehensive and yet 
how mysterious it is ; when you think of its ante- 
cedents, its attendants, its consequences ; when you 
take into view the premonitory pangs, the rending 
of the man in twain, the separation from earthly 
scenes, the disruption of tender ties, the closing of 
the period of trial, and the beginning of an illimit- 
able retribution — when you take these things into 
the account, I say, and break away from the illu- 
sions of sense and of habit, as you contemplate them, 
you cannot but feel that this most common of all 
events is also the most momentous. Be it so that 
the world is making one of its very humblest con- 
tributions to the land of silence ; that the death that 



53 

lias occurred lias set no liuman heart to tlirobbing, 
and lias awakened no interest except tliat the re- 
mains should be buried out of sight — still, even 
there, death has done his perfect work, and the only 
reason why you view it with indifference is that you 
do not think of it at all. 

But while death, considered in the most general 
view, is a momentous event, — an event with which 
none but the fool or the madman can trifle, — its 
aspect is essentially modified by the character of its 
subject ; and where the character has been moulded 
by the Divine influence of Christianity, the work 
that death accomj^lishes is at best but a mock 
triumph. What he does seems indeed terrible 
enough ; but you have only to take one step beyond 
the visible to find that, under the guise of a mon- 
ster, he was performing the office of a good angel. 
Nothing dreadful appears on this side the vail, but 
has a glorious offset on the other. The dying 
Christian is taking leave of friends who are dear to 
his heart ; l)ut he is going into the embraces of 
other friends w^ho have j)receded him in the upward 
course, and is about to join a glorified community, 
to all of whom, through Christ, he wdll sustain a 
most endearing relation. He is closing his connec- 
tion wdth all earthly objects and interests, but he is 
forming a connection with a new and glorious world, 
where there will be full scojDe for his exalted and 



54 

ever brightening faculties. He finds the death- 
struggle hard, and those who look on, turn away 
and weep; hut wait a little, and that struggle is 
over, and with it all suffering, and then comes the 
exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The body 
is about to be dressed for the grave, andl there it 
will moulder, and ultimately turn to common dust ; 
but ere long an omnijootent word shall reconstruct 
it into a glorified body, and bring it up from its 
lowly resting-place, and animate it with the spirit 
which death had dislodged, and thus the entire man 
' shall start forth on a fresh career of immortality. 
Make the Christian's death-bed seem as dark and 
revolting as you can, and we haA'e only to hold up 
the blessed Gospel, and let that shine upon it, and 
it becomes illumined as with light from the third 
heavens. 

But while death is essentially modified by char- 
acter, the Christian's death is, to some extent, mod- 
ified by circumstances ; and one of these circum- 
stances is worldlv consideration and rank. To the 
dying Christian himself this indeed is nothing, ex- 
cept as his fidelity in the high stations he has oc- 
cupied, must come up gratefully l^efore him, as a 
witness to his Christian integiity, and a voucher for 
the genuineness of his hope. In all the essentials 
of death, especially in the great matter of going to 
appear before God, he is conscious of being on a 



55 

level with tlie liumblest of the race. But to others 
his death takes on a peculiar type, from the fact 
that it closes a hfe of public service and honor. 
They have watched, perhaps admired, possibly 
envied, him, as they have seen the laurels accumu- 
late upon his brow, have heard the congratulatory 
welcome by which he has been introduced to one 
lofty station after another, and have marked the 
impress of his high and honorable deeds upon the 
surrounding community, — ^perhaps upon the country 
at large. He has seemed to them to be w^alking 
through the world in glory ; and possibly they have 
had no higher aspirations than to be in this respect 
like him. But now that the time of his departure has 
come, they follow liim in their imaginations and their 
inquiries at least, to his death-bed, curious to know 
the history of his passage through the dark valley. 
And the grand revelation that is made to them 
there is, that there is nothing stable but religion. 
It is not the great man or the honorable man that 
appears now^, but it is the humble Christian — the 
Christian in communion with the Conqueror of death, 
and becoming entranced wdth visions of immortality. 
To his view all earthly distinctions have faded into 
insignificance ; while the one grand distinction of 
being an adopted child of the Lord Almighty, fills his 
eye and satisfies his soul. As he lies there panting 
his life away, he is preaching, oh, how impressively, 



56 

of the littleness of tlie world, and tlie majesty of 
religion. Witli a hand that death is palsying, he 
is holding up a balance, in the one side of which are 
the honors which the world has poured upon him, 
in the other, the salvation which Christ hath 
wrought in him ; and he bids all take note that the 
former are outweighed by the latter, more than an 
atom is outweighed by a world. 

I have made these few remarks, my friends, as 
illustrative of the sj^irit of the occasion that has con- 
vened us. The event, when viewed in its more gen- 
eral bearings, casts into the shade, in solemnity and 
impressiveness, all the most striking events in the 
history of our departed friend that had preceded it. 
When viewed in connection with the sanctifying 
power of Christianity, it takes on a cheering aspect, 
and bids the mourner not let his heart be troubled. 
When viewed as crowning a life of great worldly 
distinction, it becomes especially monitory to those 
who are sacrificing to the honors of earth the glories 
of heaven. The man who is addressing us from the 
silence of his coffin to-day, was another Joseph of 
Arimathea, " an honorable man and a counsellor, 
who also waited for the kingdom of God." He died 
full of honors, but full of faith and of the Holy 
Ghost. It is not my purpose to enter minutely 
into the details of either his life or character ; but 
I should not feel that I had met the demands either 



57 

of the occasion, or of a long-clierisliecl and affec- 
tionate personal friendship, if I were not to indicate 
briefly tlie manner in which his life has been spent, 
to point to some of the monuments of his public 
usefulness, and to hint at those fine intellectual, 
moral, and Christian traits with which his highest 
distinction was identified. 

Benjamin" Feankldst Butlee was, on the paternal 
side of Irish, on the maternal of Puritan, extraction. 
He was born in the part of Kinderhook that is now 
Stuyvesant, on the Hudson River, December 14, 
1795. His father, who was an intelligent, enter- 
prising, and influential man, took a deep interest in 
the cause of education, and gave to this son the best 
early advantages within his reach; and the son 
showed his appreciation of them by improving them 
most diligently, and thus developing at once the 
strongest aspirations for knowledge and a remark- 
able facility at acquiring it. / Having served as an 
assistant to his father in different occupations, and 
completed a brief course of preparatory study, he 
became a student at Law under the direction and 
patronage of Mr. (now Ex-President) Vaist Bueen, 
with whom he was afterwards most intimately asso- 
ciated in his professional and public life, and for 
whom he always cherished an affection scarcely less 
than filiaL [ In 1817 he was admitted to the Bar; 
and Mr. Van Bueen, then Attorney General of the 



58 

State, and a resideDt of Albany, received him as a 
partner in business, and tins connection continued, 
with the excej^tion of a few months in 1819, till 
December 1821, when the senior partner was ap- 
pointed to the Senate of the United States. Mr. 
Butlee's first appearance in the higher courts of 
the State is said to have attracted much attention, 
and to have drawn from some distinguished jurists 
the highest testimony to his ability and the most 
confident 23redictions of his future eminence. In 
February, 1821, he was apjDointed the District At- 
torney of the city and county of Albany, — an office 
which often brous^ht him in conflict with some of 
the ablest members of the jn'ofession, but the duties 
of which he discharged with signal diligence and 
success. In November, 1824, he was appointed, to- 
gether with two other eminent lawyers, to take 
charge of the revision of the laws of the State of 
New York ; an apj^ointment which, considering his 
youth, nothing but extraordinary intellectual and 
moral qualities could have justified, but which, in 
the marked ability and fidelity with which it was 
discharged, showed the wisdom that dictated it. In 
182Y he was chosen member of the Assembly from 
Albany, with a special view to his explaining and 
vindicating the new code which was then oifered 
for the sanction of the Legislature ; and here, as in 
his other public relations, he neither sought nor 



69 

would he have accepted any dispensation from the 
most intense labor. In 1829 he was appointed a 
Eeo-ent of the University, bnt he resigned the place 
in 1832. In 1833 he acted as Commissioner on the 
part of the State of New York, to settle a long-agi- 
tated controversy between that State and New 
Jersey ; and the negotiation proved successful. In 
November of the same year he accepted the office 
of Attorney General of the United States, under 
General Jackson's administration, and by his urgent 
request ; and to this office he brought not only the 
energies of his vigorous and comprehensive mind, 
but his ever wakeful and discriminating sense of 
moral obHgation, and that diligent and patient re- 
search, that untiring assiduity, that never faltered 
at the sio:ht of obstacles which it was possible to 
overcome. In this high station, he earned for him- 
self, by the manner in which he discharged its du- 
ties, proportionally high honor, and the amount of 
labor which he performed, and well performed, dur- 
ing this period, is said to have been almost incred- 
ible. From October, 1836 to March, 1837, a period 
of about five months, he consented, by the special 
request of the President, to perform the duties of 
Secretary of War ; and here also he showed him- 
self alike capable and faithful. It had been his 
purpose to retire from the office of Attorney General 
at the close of President Jackson's term ; but he 



60 

was i^ersiiaded to retain the place for a single year 
under the administration of his successor. His la- 
bors in this department were not finally terminated 
until September, 1838. After this, he was, at two 
different periods. United States District Attorney 
for the Southern District of New York ; and at the 
commencement of Mr. Polk's administration he de- 
clined an earnest request to return to Washington 
in the capacity of Secretary of War. During sev- 
eral of his last years he was withdrawn entirely from 
public office, and was assiduously devoted to his pro- 
fessional duties. So heavy and incessant were the 
drafts that were made upon him, that his physical 
constitution, naturally vigorous, began at length to 
yield. There is reason to fear that the warnings 
which nature often gives of approaching evil from 
the neglect or violation of her laws, were not in his 
case heeded soon enough. Scarcely had he begun 
to give himself to relaxation before he rested from 
all his earthly labors. 

It is only a short time since our honored friend 
determined to break away from all professional 
cares, and avail himself of the invigorating influence 
of a voyage across the ocean and a temporary 
sojourn in foreign countries, by means of which 
also he might gratify his intellectual tastes, and en- 
large the stores of his knowledge. Accordingly, on 
the 16th of October, with two of his beloved daugli- 



61 

ters for his companions, lie embarked for Havre in 
the steamer Arago, with every prospect that his 
health would be confirmed, and expecting no doubt 
ere long a happy reunion to the circle of friends 
who parted with him so reluctantly, and who fol- 
lowed him with their blessings and prayers. But, 
little as he suspected it, he was going away only to 
die ! 

He reached the destined port in safety, and still 
there was nothing to cast a shadow upon his path. 
With an almost boundless but well-directed curi- 
osity, he looked out npon those scenes of antique 
grandeur with which he was surrounded, and was 
gathering rich material for both the imagination 
and the intellect to work u2)on ; and his family had 
already begun to reap the fruits of his foreign tour 
in the fascinating reports of his daily observation 
which he was sending them. He has arrived in the 
capital of France, and still, for aught that he knows, 
all is well. But scarcely has the splendor of that 
great city begun to ojoen upon him, before he be- 
comes convinced, as if God had written it upon the 
wall, or an angel had whispered it in his ear, that 
he has reached the spot where he must die. Sad 
thoughts about the loved and the loving on both 
sides of the ocean no doubt obtrude themselves ; but 
living faith is mighty to tranquillize and to elevate : 
it does not indeed make him forget the objects of 



62 



Lis tenderest affection, but it makes liiin strong to 
endure the pang of separation, — strong to commit 
tliem to God's gracious care. And there that stran- 
ger in a strange land, baj^tized by the Holy Ghost 
for the emergency, meets his final summons, not 
only with quiet submission but with holy triumph. 
He rests on his Saviour's arm all the way through 
the dark valley. When he has nearly reached the 
connecting point between earth and Heaven, he 
sends back a joyful testimony to his Redeemer's 
all-sustaining power and grace. He has died far 
away from home, and friends, and country, but what 
matters it, so long as he has died in the faith of 
Jesus, and the Heavenly mansions are just as acces- 
sible from one point of the globe as another. 

In turning my thoughts to Mr. Butlee's char- 
acter, I find myself disposed rather to dwell upon its 
general beauty, and harmony, and efiiciency, than 
to resolve it into its distinctive elements ; rather to 
look at that admirable combination of qualities to 
which are to be referred, under God, the great re- 
sults of his life, than to contemplate the intellectual 
and the moral, and the distinct attributes of each, 
as so many constituent parts of an admirable whole. 
It was the perfect symmetry that pervaded the 
entire man, body, mind and heart, that made him 
an object of such rare atti'action while living, and 



63 

that now renders liis memory so fragrant and 
beautiful. 

As, however, the occasion would seem to require 
that I should speak of his character somewhat more 
in detail, I may say that his intellectual endowments 
were originally of a very high order. There was a 
graceful ease and freedom in all his mental opera- 
tions. He perceived clearly ; he judged cautiously, 
but correctly ; and his memory was so exact and 
retentive as to be a safe depository for almost every 
thing that it had ever received. Indeed, so minute 
and perfect was his recollection of all the details of 
almost any event which had come within his knowl- 
edge, that in any relation which he might make, 
you felt as sure that you were hearing the exact 
truth as if he were reading it to you from a record 
which he had made when the event occurred. His 
faculties were all subjected to careful and constant 
culture ; and the amount of knowledge which he 
acquired, not only in his own profession but in the 
various departments of learning and practical life, 
at once rendered him at home in any circle, and 
qualified him for almost any field of usefulness. 

In his moral constitution also Mr. Butler was 
eminently favored ; though in speaking of him in 
this respect it is impossible to ignore the aid which 
he derived from Christianity. He had a simplicity 
and directness of aim that forbade the thought of 



64 

any thing dark or sinuous in liis views or conduct. 
He had mucli of that prudence that sets a watch at 
the door of the hps, that they do not needlessly of- 
fend. He had that benevolence that delights in the 
welfare of others, and is willing to make sacrifices 
to promote it. He had that melting compassion 
that not only feels but weeps for another's wo,— 
upon which bleeding and broken hearts act as an 
irresistible attraction. He had that modesty, which 
is rather the ornament than the veil of true great- 
ness, and yet that self-possession and dignity which 
would have done honor to the Court. He combined 
an almost womanly gentleness with a manly firm- 
ness ; and while he would never needlessly wound 
the feelings or assail the prejudices of any, yet where 
any great question of duty was concerned, and his 
convictions in relation to it were thoroughly estab- 
lished, he had a will of iron. He was forbearing 
and forgiving towards those who iujured him ; in 
rendering evil for evil I am confident he never took 
the first lesson. He was a cheerful and thankful 
recipient of the Divine favors ; and when trouble 
came, he bowled in reverent submission and blessed 
the hand that sent it. I have seen him rejoicing in 
an exuberance of domestic comforts, and other 
temporal blessings ; but I never saw him when 
the spirit of gratitude towards his Heavenly Bene- 
factor even seemed to wane. I have seen him when 



65 

the deep waters came over his soul, but I never saw 
him when he betrayed by a word or a look the least 
sign of unwillingness that God's will should be done 
concerning him. However some of these qualities 
may exist in a humbler form as a natural growth, 
yet no one could witness their development in him, 
without feeling assured that they rose to the higher 
character of graces of the Spirit. 

You perceive that I have said little of Mr. But- 
ler's high professional distinction or of the success 
that marked his public career. These are themes 
which I would rather treat, if I were to treat them 
at all, at a greater distance from his coffin. It is 
his character as a Christian., — an earnest, active, 
consistent, uncompromising Christian, upon which 
it seems most fitting, as it is to me most delightful, 
here to dwell. I may say, without the fear of contra- 
diction, that religion with him was an all-pervadiDg 
principle. You could not persuade yourself that it 
was something put on ; you felt that it was a mighty 
inward power, directing all his purposes and ac- 
tions, and ftioulding his whole character into a form 
of rare loveliness and beauty. He was not afraid 
to stand forth a witness for Christ in any circum- 
stances ; and although never unduly forward in his 
religious demonstrations, it was as clear as the light 
that he was ready to follow the Master whitherso- 
ever He might lead. In his family he was a model 

5 



66 

of conjugal and j^arental tenderness and fidelity ; 
and the very last time I saw him, he told me out 
of a full heart, and in a tone of inexpressible thank- 
fidness, that God's covenant faithfulness had been 
manifest towards him by bringing every one of 
his dear children to the Cross. In the Sabbath 
School (for in one school at least I know he was 
not only a teacher but a superintendent) he drew 
the children towards him with cords of love, and 
labored for their best interests with as much sin- 
gleness of mind and heart as if that had been his 
only vocation. At the weekly prayer meetings of 
the church he considered it a privilege to be present 
as often as his manifold ensfao^ements wonld allow ; 
and never shall I forget the last meeting of this 
kind which he attended under my own ministry, in 
which with more than a l^rother's tenderness he 
bade us farewell. He was earnest in his prayers 
and eiforts for the advancement of Christ's cause ; 
while yet he was jealous for the preservation of the 
order of God's house, and looked with little indul- 
gence upon any thing which he thought 'involved a 
departure from the simplicity of the Gospel. Those 
who saw him in his daily walk, saw that he was 
living nnder the influence of the powers of the world 
to come ; but those only who knew him in the most 
familiar and sacred communings of Christian aflec- 
tion, could form any adequate idea of tlie vigor of 



67 

his inner life. And if I may judge from my own 
intercourse witli him, I may say that his sj^iritual 
growth became more strongly marked in his later 
years. It is only w^ithin a few months that he 
made me a hasty call in a brief interval of leisure 
during his professional engagements at Albany ; 
and I found that his principal errand was to rejoice 
with me over the hopeful conversion of one of our 
mutual friends. 

Far be it from me to say that my lamented 
friend was without imperfections ; his uniformly 
subdued and lowly spirit is the evidence that he 
would have been the first to repudiate such a sug- 
gestion ; but I will venture to leave it to those who 
have fewer imperfections than he, to show what 
they were. I know that he was prominent in some 
political conflicts, — a position which no man can 
occupy without having his motives arraigned, not to 
say his character assailed. It is not for me to pro- 
nounce upon either his general course or his partic- 
ular acts ; but that whatever he did, was done not 
from the' wild dictates of caprice or passion, but 
from the honest dictates of conscience, I always felt 
a perfect assurance. When I have heard of him 
doing his part manfidly in the battle and storm of 
political life, I may have been tempted to wish that 
he was breathing an atmosphere more congenial 
with his gentle and peaceful spirit; but I never 



68 



douLted tliat lie was acting from tlie liigli convic- 
tions of duty any more than wlien I liave seen liim 
dispensing liis charities to the poor, or bowing at 

the altars of God. 

I look upon this dispensation as specially moni- 
tory in its public and national bearings. I cast my 
eye over this assembly, I look abroad upon this 
great nation, and I see everywhere men in the 
exercise of civil authority, and thus, in a humbler 
or higher degree, giving direction to the destinies of 
our country. All these I would solemnly invoke, 
first by a regard to their own best interests, and 
next by their love for the land in which they dwell, 
to heed the lesson that is going forth from this 
coffin, in respect to the paramount importance of 
personal religion. I would admonish them that 
thoufrh they are wise men and counsellors, legisla- 
tors, "and rulers, still they are immortal men, and 
will soon reach the point which our friend has 
already passed, where there will come a mighty ex- 
igency, which nothing but hviug Christianity can 
meet. I would remind them also that religion is 
the very soul of patriotism ; and that as they would 
render their country the highest service, they must 
come reverently and humbly to the Fountain of all 
Wisdom. And if I could, for a moment, command 
the nation's ear, I would bid her take heed how 
she enthrones infidelity and profligacy in her high 



69 

places. I would read to lier a terrible chapter from 
the history of other nations, showing that impiety 
and tyranny are twin demons, and that madness is 
in the heart of those who would think to yield to 
the one and escape the other. And I would ven- 
ture to tell my country, that her interests will never 
be seriously imperilled even by the honest mistakes 
of her rulers, pro\dded only that to the proper meas- 
ure of intelligence they add that spirit which dis- 
poses them always to keej) a conscience void of 
offence. 

Oh, that the gracious Comforter might now fol- 
low in the track of death, to minister consolation to 
the multitude of stricken hearts ! Here is a Church 
mourning that one of its pillars has fallen ; here 
are Christian brethren calling up scenes of goodly 
fellowship, in which the voice now hushed in death 
bore a welcome part; here are young disciples 
whom the same voice has counselled and encouraged, 
and who are sad because their friend and helper is 
laid low. Here are pastors who have successively 
broken to this Israelite indeed the bread of life, and 
have found their burdens lightened by his intelli- 
gent and zealous co-operation. Here are some of 
the friends of his early years, who have loved him 
from their youth, and whom he has loved in return, 
and who are now oppressed by the reflection that 
they shall see his face no more. Here are those 



TO 

whose parents were also his parents ; who were 
nurtured Avith him under the same roof and trained 
under the same hallowed influences, and who have 
found their pulsations becoming quicker and more 
tender as they have remembered that he was their 
brother. And finally, here are the children who 
have come thus far on life's journey under his pater- 
nal guidance ; who have been used to repose alike 
in his wisdom and his love ; who have never feared 
darkness as long as the sunshine of his presence was 
within their reach ; but upon whom the reflection 
now falls, as a cold shadow, that his countenance 
has beamed upon them its last loving smile. Verily, 
I am standing in the presence of a bereaved assem- 
blage ! Come, ever blessed Christianity, and dis- 
play thy gracious, healing triumphs here! May 
each mourner receive the baptism that brings light 
out of the cloud, and lifts the soul towards its eter- 
nal rest ! 



After the chant by the choir, '' Tliy Will be 
Done^'' Rev. Dr. Adams S2:)oke as follows : 

After the Forum has uttered its eloquent voices 
of condolence and panegyric ; after the Pulpit has 
furnished its most truthful and instructive testimo- 



71 

nies ; there remains to ine the tender and solemn 
service of conducting you into the very chamber 
where this good man hath fallen asleep. Far am I 
from countenancing the idea that the conduct of a 
man in moments of death, irresjoective of all his 
manner of life, is the best and happiest ordeal to 
which character can be subjected ; but how grateful 
are we all when we are permitted to see a peaceful 
death terminating a well-ordered and Christian life ! 
Our beloved friend went abroad for o^est; and the 
manner of his death testifies to us that he found that 
rest which remaineth to the people of God. 

What I am about to read might seem at first to 
l3elong exclusively to the sanctuary of domestic pri- 
vacy ; but you will agree with me that it does not 
belong alone to stricken friends at home. It be- 
longs to us ; it belongs to the Son of God ; for these 
are the* testimonies in honor of our religion, and 
these are the trophies which glorify our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. That feeling which is so often 
expressed at the death of a public man, which would 
make inquiry as to the manner of his death, is not 
to be set down to vain and idle curiosity. It is the 
testimony of the deep-seated conviction that we are 
all of us personally interested in that event, that 
we are all linked by inseparable destinies to that 
same act and article of death ; and every cheering 
voice that comes back to us from the pillow of 



72 



the dying Christian, is to us a new evidence of the 
reality of our religion. 

One week before the death of Mr. Butler he 
was in the ancient city of Rouen ; and in the last 
letter ever written by him, on the 14th of November, 
he gave an account of the manner in which the day 
was spent. The letter contains an incident which 
happily indicates the genial, Catholic character of 
his reli2:ion. 

He reached Rouen, he says, on Monday evening, 
just as the bells of the Cathedral were ringing the 
evening chimes by which the services of All Saints' 
Day were closed. At 8 in the morning he had been 
in the old church of Notre Dame de Havre. The 
buildiusf was crowded. Mr. Butlee took a seat near 
a bright-looking, hardy young peasant, who neverthe- 
less was reading, with fervency and a correct pronun- 
ciation, the Latin prayers. Mr. Butlee joined with 
them in that portion of the service wherein he found 
nothing that the strictest Protestant could object to ; 
and after he turned from the Cathedral, when other 
forms of the service which were not so cono-enial to 
his feelings and judgment were introduced, he made 
use of that beautiful expression of Wesley : 

" God, for Cheist's sake, forgive all su23erstition, 
but accept the heart service ! " 

And now I shall not venture to change a single 
word of that which I am permitted to read to you : 



73 

" On tlie very day on wliicli tlie above letter was 
written, lie was found to be seriously ill, and a pby- 
sician was sent for. To his question on entering, 
' What is the matter, sir ? ' Mr. Butlee replied, with 
his invariable cheerfulness of manner, ' First of all, 
sixty -three years ! ' 

" His case was pronounced a critical one. A young 
friend sat up with liim during. the night. Early the 
next morning, one of his travelhng companions heard 
him talking earnestly, and on going into the room, 

Mr. Butlee said to him, 'Young Mr. has just 

been reading my five Psalms to me.' " 

(He was in the habit of reading five Psalms each 
day, thus going through the entire book every month. 
Would that all were accustomed to use this beautiful 
hymnology, not merely to read, but use it, after this 
method, every day ! The Psalms read on that day 
were the 21st to the 26th ; and if, when you retire, 
you turn to them, you will see that he could not have 
well chosen any more appro23riate, if he had known 
his death so nearly approached. One, the 23d Psalm, 
is beautifully expressive of confidence in the Great 
Shepherd : " Yea, though I walk through the valley 
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ; for thou 
art with me ; thy rod and thy staff they comfort 
me.") 

" ' Young Mr. has been reading my five 

Psalms to me, and I have been expounding them to 



74 

him.' He had explained to the reader several pro- 
phetical allusions to our Saviour, of which he had 
not known before. 

" The disease made rapid progress. He suffered 
little pain, but it soon became evident that there 
was little prospect of recovery. He received the 
announcement of this fact not simply with resigna- 
tion and peace, but with gratitude and thanksgiving. 
He said, ' This is a most comforting illness. I should 
like to die here, if it is God's will, it is all so pleas- 
ant. If He chooses to spare me for twenty years 
longer, to become a dotard, His will be done ; but 
it is all so pleasant and comforting here.' 

" This was on Sunday. He repeated, with some 
help, 

' Sweet is the day of sacred rest ; ' 

and said, ' I am all ready and prepared to go if it 

is God's will. I have given Mr. B ■ my last 

wishes. I feel like Pilgrim in the waters: all is 
right, body and soul, body and soul.' He had pre- 
viously remarked, ' I bought Taylor's Holy Living 
and Dying, forty years ago, and ever since then 
death has been familiar to me.' ' I trust I may not 
for any pains of death fall from the Saviour ; that 
is what the prayer book says — good prayer book — 
I mingle all these good books — good thoughts — 
good hopes of my dear Saviour.' 



75 

"At anotlier time: ' I am a sinner, oli, liow 
great ! but my sin can be cleansed. I liave a Sa- 
viour, Jesus Christ tlie rigliteous. Ob, precious Sa- 
viour ! oh, mighty Lord ! If we say we have no 
sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us ; 
but if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all uu- 
riffhteousness.' 

" Again : ' I have 2:>eace, perfect peace,' with em- 
phasis ; and then repeated the text, ' Thou wilt keep 
him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.' 
" On Monday, Nov. 8th, he gradually l:)ecarae 
unconscious ; during the morning, however, he re- 
cognized both his daughters with expressions of the 
greatest affection, and several times repeated the 
words, ' I die a happy man— I die a happy man.' 

" ' Rock of Ages, cleft for me,' was also a phrase 
often repeated after a half-unconsciousness had settled 
upon his senses, as if his spirit sought in its expiring 
impulse to link the memory of the melodies of Zion 
with the anticipation of the songs of the redeemed." 
The closing scene is thus described : 
" You will never be able to realize, much as we 
may speak to you of it, how calm and beautiful, 
how heavenly, in what perfect harmony with all 
his life, his illness and death were. Mere human 
thoucrht could never have conceived so heavenly an 
end. He had, apparently, been unconscious as to out- 



76 

ward things since tliree o'clock, even the conscious- 
ness that we were beside liim, constantly waiting 
on Mm, seemed to have gone, but I can scarcely 
doubt that the soul was already rejoicing in the 
foretaste of immortal joy. About nine o'clock he 
opened his eyes a little, and then it was that the 
very act of death began. It would be impossible 
for any mortal pen to describe it ; it was like the 
very gentlest breath of a sweet infant, coming for a 
moment, then going ; we waited in breathless, mo- 
tionless silence for each succeeding one. It came, 
it went — it came, it went ; it was the most beauti- 
ful music that any one could ever hear in this world. 
Those who heard it can have some faint conception 
of the music of Heaven. It was, in truth, the har- 
mony of an immortal soul, whose muddy vesture of 
decay had grown so pure and heavenly, that its 
harmony was really audible. It was at fifteen 
minutes past nine that there was a longer pause — 
a softer breath — then just a stirring of the limbs — 
one breath more, and at what moment we could 
scarcely tell, between fifteen and twenty minutes 
past nine, our Father's soul sighed itself away. 

" There was the most j)ure and perfect expression 
of peace upon his face, a smile uj^ou his lips, in 
which you might read the whole sweet story of 
mortal sickness without pain, and a soul entirely 
prepared. They say there might be a thousand 



11 

deaths, and not one so calm and peaceful, or even 
approaching it in peace." 

A good thing is it for ns, my fellow- citizens and 
friends,— a good thing is it for us to come up into 
the house of God, and receive such testimony as this ! 
My dear friends, bereaved in the unexpected 
loss of one whom you have revered, loved, and 
honored, thank God to-day, that you have had such 
a friend, and that he has been spared to you so long. 
Congratulate him, congratulate yourselves, that his 
has been such a safe and happy death. 

To those Christian friends who have been asso- 
ciated with him in church privileges, and whose 
voices have often joined in this place with his in 
prayer and praise, let me say, take comfort and 
encouragement from the new evidence of the reality 
of your religion, that has been thus addressed to you. 
My fellow-citizens, honored members of that 
profession which has furnished us so many of the 
laws of evidence, as applicable to our religion,— so 
many noble specimens of Christian character in our 
own and in foreign lands,— from whose profession it 
has pleased the Holy Ghost to borrow so many fo- 
rensic analogies in illustration of the moral govern- 
ment of God,— oh! receive the testimony thus 
brought to you from an honored brother and asso- 
ciate^^nd understand how great a thing it is to be 
truly religious ! 



IS 

To die, is to be denuded of every thing but our 
moral affections. More tlian tlie glory of tliis 
world, — more than all the gifts of intellect, are 
those qualities that are nurtured in us by the S23irit 
of God. To be a Christian, to live as a Christian, 
and to die as a Christian, is the greatest of all things. 
Deep down beneath your politics, and your jurisj^ru- 
dence, and your merchandise, and all the turmoil of 
this life, is this consciousness of your own, that to be 
a believer in Jesus Christ is the one incomparable 
wisdom ! The testimony comes to us from those lips, 
now pale and sj^eechless. Oh ! that they had lan- 
guage to-day, and they would testify to us more elo- 
quently than ever, that to believe in Jesus Christ is 
the way to extract the sting of Death. His own 
happy experience is the best comment on the words 
of Scripture: "The sting of death is sin, — Behold 
the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the 
world ! " Death is safe to him that believeth in tlie 
Son of God. 

The Hymn " JiocJc of Ages'"' was sung by the 
Choir. 

Rev. Dr. Bethune then said : — ■ 

I trust, my friends, you will pardon me for de- 
taining you a little longer from the private medita- 
tions which should follow a scene like this. When 
tidings of the death of Mr. Butler reached this 



19 

city, they found me in my library, and I bowed my 
head upon my hand, and felt the sorrow that one 
has in losinof a dear friend. But we had been 
separated so much in life, and, in fact, been so sel- 
dom together at any time, that I never thought 
of being remembered by him or his, as especially 
amons: the number of his friends, — thouo;h I leaned 
upon the thought that I might love him always. 
Judge, then, with what grateful pleasure, in these 
melancholy circumstances, I received from the rep- 
resentative of his family a recognition as one of 
those who knew him well, and a request for a few 
words from lips w^hich they knew were those of 
friendship — words that would be inspired by 
truth ! 

/ My first acquaintance with Mr. Butler, was in 
the course of a controversy which occuj^ied many 
minds at the time, when we held the same views, 
and differed from many good men. The next time 
I had the j^leasure of meeting him was one of great 
interest. It was at Washington, when he was 
Attorney General of the United States. He did 
me the kindness of calling to see me on a Saturday, 
and said, " To-morrow is the Sabbath. It will be 
more pleasant for you to be with friends than in a 
public house. Come and dine with us." I went, 
as you may suj^pose, with great cheerfulness, thank- 
ful for the courtesy, and the relief which it ofiered 



80 



from the bustle of a noisy hotel. The dinner, plain, 
as a Sabbath dinner should be, I saw was evidently 
hurried by my host, — when his admirable wife, 
with that graceful vivacity which you who knew 
her must remember, and yet with affection that 
showed itself through the slight tone of badinage, 
said: "Now I know what you intend. You are 
going to take Doctor Bethune from his dinner, to 
see your Sunday Class." It was so. He did not 
hesitate to hurry me from the table, and take me 
into a distant part of Washington, into the gallery 
of a church, where there were certain square or 
quadrangular pews, — and he there introduced me 
to some six or seven boys — his Sabbath-School class. 
He showed a devotion to his work there, and a con- 
fidence that I would sympathize with him in it, that 
was very delightful. 

I do not know how it appears to you, but it 
struck me as one of the finest spectacles of Christian 
consistency that could be presented. The first law 
officer of the United States delis^htino; — not actino- 
as in a matter of form or show — but delighting to 
hide himself from all his honors upon God's holy 
day, to lead a few boys nearer to Christ ! 

That was Mr. Butler. My friends, religion was 
given to us to make us more like God — like our 
God : not the God of the Hindoo mythology, who 
lives retired from the interests of the world, absorb- 



81 



ed in the contemplation of liis own infinite attributes, 
bnt the God of constant action, the God who is 
ever delighting to bless, to do justice and to save ! 
That is the religion he had, and which we should have. 
I read of the religion of eminent preachers — of 
their services and their faith, — but I read without 
much astonishment. It is their business, it is their 
duty to be pious. I would as lief think of congrat- 
ulating a soldier for his courage, as wonder at a 
preacher because he is religious. It is an insult 
to a soldier, as I take it, to speak of his bravery. 
He should be brave as a matter of course. Then, 
again, I look upon that sort of religion which lies in 
one's diary, or in the prayer-meeting, or on the Sab- 
bath — (lies only there, mark you), — as of little or no 
account in testifying to the power of Christianity. 
That is religion which is to a man's daily, ordinary, 
constant life, what the soul is to the man, — what 
the life is to the body. Religion should pervade 
the whole of our nature and conduct, or it is not 
the religion of Christ. We are of various tempera- 
ments, and placed under different circumstances. 
One man has a strong physical existence, another 
is weak and feeble ; one has a vigorous philosophical 
mind, another is impulsive and warm. But it is the 
office of true religion to take all these differences 
and blend them in harmony, in those principles of 
faith and action which characterize the doctrine of 
6 



82 

God's lioly Word. For tliese differences we are not 
resj)onsible — they belong to the personal nature 
God has assigned as ; and grace will work through 
these differences according to our peculiarities, yet 
will blend them all in harmony by the great prin- 
ci23les of faith and action taught us on the pages of 
God's holy word; and thus the Master provides 
himself with servants for every department of his 
work. 

This was the character of him whom we mourn, 
yet rather congratulate, for his testimony to the 
power of Christianity. He was a man. He put 
nothing away from him that was man. I do not, and, 
I am sure he would not, adoj)tthe sentiment casual- 
ly and but partially expressed by my dear and Reve- 
rend friend (Dr. Sprague), who " almost " regretted 
to find him fighting in the controversies of political life. 
My friends, I ask you — as he would have asked — 
why should a man, because he is a Christian, be un- 
faithful to his country ? What is the use of his re- 
ligion, as a citizen, if it does not consecrate him to his 
political duties ? I do not know how it may strike 
you — some of you doubtless have agreed with him, 
some have differed from him, and others have at vari- 
ous times, agreed, or differed with him, and from him, 
as I have, but this is true,^ — that if we had more 
Benjamin F. Butlees in our jDolitical life, we should 
have a better government and a better State. It 



83 

is because you, Christian men, do not do your duty 
as citizens at primary meetings, at the polls, and in 
more public offices, it is because you do not do your 
duty, that our land is given up so mucli to trading 
office-seekers, and hired gladiators. We may not 
all think alike, but I should as soon tbink of ex- 
communicating a man from my Christian symjDathy 
because be was a Baptist or an Episcopalian, as of 
denying a man's patriotism because his views of 
political expediency or doctrine were not the same 
as my own. It is preposterous to say that where a 
country, like ours, is divided so nearly into two great 
parties, that one or the other half of the nation, 
must be either rogues or fools. 

But when we have men of large and noble minds 
and sentiments to discuss those questions of diifer- 
ence, — when we have men whose hearts are con- 
trolled by responsibility to God, who in all the 
earnestness of working out their own salvation, can- 
not forget the interests of their country, as public 
servants, then may we hope for better things than 
now. The character of Mr. Butler was consistent 
throughout. "Whatever might have been said of 
him in the hurly-burly of pohtical strife, — in the 
glow and heat of party contest, — there is not one 
who can stand beside that coffin, and say of the 
sleeper within it, that he was not a true man. 

I beg pardon for allowing myself to be led so 



84 

far out on this subject, but I feel strongly what I 
say. 

When the great Pompey was sick at Neapolis, 
and was supposed to be near death, the whole 
population put garlands on their heads, and went 
to the house in which he lay, to congratulate him 
upon so happy and easy a close of such an honored 
life. He recovered, and he recovered to die at last, 
assassinated by a eunuch and a slave upon a desert 
shore. 

My friends, I have more of congratulation for 
the spirit which animated this clay than I have of 
grief He lived well; he died well; and now he 
lives for ever more ! Not a shadow over his pre- 
cious memory, except the softening light of that 
blessed evening, the precursor of a morning which 
shall never fade. No abatement of his natural 
strength, — no failure of his strong mind, — no chill 
of his ardent heart : nothing to regret : all to hope 
for. Did he not die well ? 

It was in a foreign land, — ^but those who were 
dearest to his heart, brought home about his bed, — 
and Paris is as near to Heaven as New York. He 
died well. And he went to his heavenly home, not 
unwelcomed. There was one to meet him on the 
very threshold of his Father's house — one, after 
whom we may believe his heart, since he lost her 
for a brief season, never ceased to yeal-n. He died 
well ! He lives for ever ! 



85 

He was a man whose piety was his life, and you 
will pardon me for recurring to that theme for a 
moment. My dear mother said to me once, of a 
person whose manner I had spoken well of : "My 
son, he puts on his politeness as he does his best 
coat. Give me a man whose politeness is in his 
skin ! " So it was in Mr. Butlee's religion. It was 
part of himself There was no affectation about it. 
No one ever supposed there was. It shone out of 
his bright eye (can it be, that that bright eye will 
never shine on us again), it beamed from his coun- 
tenance, — it came from his heart, — it was a trans- 
figuration from within, that made his life so beauti- 
ful in all the grace and kindness of a Christian 
gentleman. 

Let me say one word more, as I look over this 
assembly. I am a younger man than Mr. Butlee, 
though a difference of ten years is not what it was 
when we were boys. I see before me many, of 
every period of life, some older, some younger. 
But how many are absent ? How many of those 
who were associated with us, — whom we have loved, 
and honored, and cherished, — with whom we have 
walked together, — how many have gone, — and how 
rapidly is the number diminishing ! We must all 
come to it, my friends. We, too, must die, and die 
soon. Are we ready ? 



PRISON ASSOCIATION. 



At a special meeting of the Prison Association 
of New York, tlie following resolutions, presented 
by Jajies H. Titus, were unanimously adopted : 

Resolved^ That the Prison Association of New York, deeply 
sympathize in the general lament produced by the death of Ben- 
jamin F. Butler, and have peculiar cause for such sorrow, inas- 
much as he was one of the most efficient of those individuals who 
first projected and organized this institution, and has continued 
since, by official services, wise counsel, and material aid, to pro- 
mote its usefulness. 

Resolved^ That in the life and character of Benjamin F. 
Butler, we acknowledge a pattern worthy of imitation by those 
who venerate virtue and love truth ; seeing that he was, as a 
jurist, learned and upright ; as a statesman, sagacious in discern- 
ment, bold in position, and prudent in action ; as a patriot, pure 
and firm ; as a citizen, discreet and active ; as a man, faithful in 
business and exact in moral rectitude ; as a Christian, zealous 
without enthusiasm, devout without superstition, charitable and 
catholic in spirit, showing his faith by his works. 

Resolved, That the members of this institution tender their 
condolence to the family of our deceased associate, and that a 
copy of these resolutions be transmitted to them as evidence of 
our appreciation of his memory. 



87 

After wliicL, on motion of Iseael Russell, the 
Board adjourned to attend tlie funeral of their de- 
ceased member. 

JAMES H. TITUS, 

President. 
John H. Griscom, Ohairman Ex. Com. 
Jaivies C. HoLDEisr, Hec. See. 



LAW DEPARTMENT OF THE NEW YORK 

UNIVERSITY. 

At a meeting of the Students of the Law De- 
partment of the New York University, November 
27th, 1858 ; the following preamble and resolutions 
were unanimously adopted : 

Whereas^ The sad intelligence of the death of the Hon. Ben- 
jamin F. Butler has recently been received with sorrow by this 
community, which for so many years, he has, by his public and 
private virtues so eminently adorned : and 

Whereas, The deceased was for a period of more than twenty 
years, intimately connected with the interests of this University, 
and for a long time its principal Professor of the Department of 
Law : therefore 

Bcsolved, That the friends of the Institution, as well as the 
community at large, have, in this bereavement, been deprived of 
one of its most efficient and worthy members ; and that it is 
with emotions of profound sorrow, that we pay this tribute of 
respect to the memory of one, who secured, while living, the 
esteem and admiration of all with whom he was associated. By 



^ Mi 



88 



his fine acquirements as a scliolar, as well as by his fine personal 
qualities, he had attained an enviable position at the Bar ; while 
by his labors in the cause of private benevolence, and public 
charities, he had endeared himself to the hearts of this whole 
community. 

On motion of Mr. E. B. Holmes, it was resolved, 

That a copy of tlie preamble and resolutions, as 

adopted, be sent to the family of the deceased. 

GILEAD B. NASH, 

per President. 
William Wirt Hewett, 

Secretary. 



» t « 



NEW YOEK TYPOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 

At the meeting of the New York Typographical 
Society on Saturday ev-ening, the following resolu- 
tions were offered, and after remarks from several 
members, were unanimously adopted : 

Whereas^ The Society have learned with regret the death of 
one of our most esteemed honorary members, the Hon. Benjamin 
F. Bdtlek, which sad event recently took place in Paris, whither 
he had gone for the benefit of his health ; and 

Whereas, Mr. Butler took a deep interest in our welfare, 
and had proposed some important improvements in regard to our 
library, which, had he been spared to consummate, would, in all 
probability, have placed it in a position to compete in usefulness 
with any similar institution in the city; therefore, 

Resolved, That in consideration of the loss this Society has 
sustained in the death of Mr. Butler, as well as to pay an hum- 
ble tribute of our esteem and respect to his memory, the Printers' 
Free Library be draped in mourning for one month. 



09 



I 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



lilHIIilllll II I Hill 

011 838 167 1 ^ 







